TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Shark attack

Georgia--what a sad experience for you to be on the beach when this happened.

Actually the Nature Foundation said something to the effect that they would be very surprised if it was a shark attack, but they definitely are doing some backtracking.

Totally sad situation, first and foremost for the family and friends of the victim.

Even though the attack occurred in front of La Playa, the boat that retrieved the body came from and returned to the watersports area on the other side of Bikini. Some of the folks sitting near us walked down that way to see what was going on, but we stayed put where we were. Not the way I wanted to remember my last day, so although we were there, we stayed removed from the tragedy.

Very true, Georgia.

Yes quite a shook up.

Not sure why it bothers me so much but why haven’t they released her identity ? It just seems weird I mean she was someone’s daughter what’s her name she shouldn’t just be referred to as the shark attack victim, maybe just me ☹️

Swept Away,
Her name was Pauline Richard. She was a 38-year-old risk management engineer from Caen, in the Normandy region of France. You can read more in the French newspapers -- for example, here:
https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/fai...-antilles-par-un-requin-tigre-1608067076

Thank you

Horrible, what else can possibly go wrong in 2020.

We had a fatal shark attack in Maine last summer......

Yes we did. I believe it was a great white. Very sad.

Interesting article. Thank you for sharing.

The Nature Foundation is still not making much sense when their manager, Melanie Meijer zu Schlochtern states, "It is “extremely likely” that the shark had already disappeared into the deep ocean; besides sharks are not known to re-bite when realising the mistake, as humans are not their food source.”

Sharks don’t have the ability to reason, as science has shown. That is a very strange comment and not something that will redeem the Nature Foundation at all, given their disappointing responses to this tragic shark attack.

I always thought that humans and other primates were the only ones who could actually REASON, but sharks can certainly be trained, just like other inhabitants of the sea, like dolphins. I would view that statement as being some type of natural learning, not reasoning, per se. The statement from the Nature Foundation that it was extremely unlikely this was a shark attack (before the autopsy was perfomed) was the really odd statement. I guess that was based on how unusual fatal shark attacks are, but this one certainly did seem to be a shark attack from the very start.

Daily Herald story

So sad, she was on a year long sabbatical from work. Looking forward to a whole new life, I'm sure.